Effects of Guanidionoacetic Acid and Arginine Supplementation to Vegetable Diets Fed to Broiler Chickens Subjected to Heat Stress before Slaughter

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate the supplementation of guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) and L-arginine (L-Arg) as creatine precursors to vegetable diets on the carcass yield and meat quality of broilers subjected to two days of heat stress before slaughter. A total of 1260 broiler chicks were distributed according to a completely randomized design into four treatments with nine replicates of 35 birds each. The treatments consisted of: T1 - vegetable diet based on corn and soybean meal (control diet); T2 - control diet with the inclusion of meat meal (3%); T3 - control diet supplemented with GAA (0.08%); and T4 - control diet supplemented with L-Arg (0.8%). The birds were submitted to heat stress for two days before slaughter (from 42 to 44 days of age). The birds fed the diets supplemented with GAA or L-Arg presented heavier carcasses (p<0.0035), higher breast yield (p=0.0685), and lower of abdominal fat deposition (p=0.0508) than those fed the control diet and the control diet with meat meal. The cooking loss of the breast fillets of broilers fed the control diet supplemented with meat meal, GAA or L-Arg was lower (p<0.0068) compared with those fed the control diet. Thawing and pressure-driven breast fillet weight losses, and pH, luminosity, redness (a*value), and yellowness (b* value) values were not influenced by the treatments. When GAA is less expensive than commercially-available Arg, the dietary supplementation of GAA is more advantageous, based on the meat yield improvements observed in the present study

Optimizing COVID-19 surveillance in long-term care facilities: a modelling study

Background: Long-term care facilities (LTCFs) are vulnerable to outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Timely epidemiological surveillance is essential for outbreak response, but is complicated by a high proportion of silent (non-symptomatic) infections and limited testing resources. Methods: We used a stochastic, individual-based model to simulate transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) along detailed inter-individual contact networks describing patient-staff interactions in a real LTCF setting. We simulated distribution of nasopharyngeal swabs and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests using clinical and demographic indications and evaluated the efficacy and resource-efficiency of a range of surveillance strategies, including group testing (sample pooling) and testing cascades, which couple (i) testing for multiple indications (symptoms, admission) with (ii) random daily testing. Results: In the baseline scenario, randomly introducing a silent SARS-CoV-2 infection into a 170-bed LTCF led to large outbreaks, with a cumulative 86 (95% uncertainty interval 6–224) infections after 3 weeks of unmitigated transmission. Efficacy of symptom-based screening was limited by lags to symptom onset and silent asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission. Across scenarios, testing upon admission detected just 34–66% of patients infected upon LTCF entry, and also missed potential introductions from staff. Random daily testing was more effective when targeting patients than staff, but was overall an inefficient use of limited resources. At high testing capacity (> 10 tests/100 beds/day), cascades were most effective, with a 19–36% probability of detecting outbreaks prior to any nosocomial transmission, and 26–46% prior to first onset of COVID-19 symptoms. Conversely, at low capacity ( Conclusions: COVID-19 surveillance is challenged by delayed or absent clinical symptoms and imperfect diagnostic sensitivity of standard RT-PCR tests. In our analysis, group testing was the most effective and efficient COVID-19 surveillance strategy for resource-limited LTCFs. Testing cascades were even more effective given ample testing resources. Increasing testing capacity and updating surveillance protocols accordingly could facilitate earlier detection of emerging outbreaks, informing a need for urgent intervention in settings with ongoing nosocomial transmission.</p

Optimizing COVID-19 surveillance in long-term care facilities: a modelling study

This work resulted from the MOD-COV Project (Modelling of the hOspital Dissemination of SARS-CoV-2), a collaboration between the Institut Pasteur, the Conservatoire Nationale des Arts et Métiers, and the AVIESAN/REACTing working group “Modelling SARS-CoV-2 dissemination in healthcare settings”, whose members we thank (Niccolo Buetti, Christian Brun-Buisson, Sylvie Burban, Simon Cauchemez, Guillaume Chelius, Anthony Cousien, Pascal Crepey, Vittoria Colizza, Christel Daniel, Aurélien Dinh, Pierre Frange, Eric Fleury, Antoine Fraboulet, Marie-Paule Gustin, Lidia Kardas-Sloma, Elsa Kermorvant, Jean Christophe Lucet, Chiara Poletto, Rodolphe Thiebaut, Sylvie van der Werf, Philippe Vanhems, Linda Wittkop, Jean-Ralph Zahar).We also thank the i-Bird Study Group (Anne Sophie Alvarez, Audrey Baraffe, Mariano Beiró, Inga Bertucci, Pierre-Yves Boëlle, Camille Cyncynatus, Florence Dannet, Marie Laure Delaby, Pierre Denys, Matthieu Domenech de Cellès, Eric Fleury, Antoine Fraboulet, Jean-Louis Gaillard, Boris Labrador, Jennifer Lasley, Christine Lawrence, Judith Legrand, Odile Le Minor, Caroline Ligier, Lucie Martinet, Karine Mignon, Catherine Sacleux, Jérôme Salomon, Thomas Obadia, Marie Perard, Laure Petit, Laeticia Remy, Anne Thiebaut, Damien Thomas, Philippe Tronchet, Isabelle Villain), as well as Jacob Barrett for helpful discussion.International audienceBackground: Long-term care facilities (LTCFs) are vulnerable to outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Timely epidemiological surveillance is essential for outbreak response, but is complicated by a high proportion of silent (non-symptomatic) infections and limited testing resources.Methods: We used a stochastic, individual-based model to simulate transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) along detailed inter-individual contact networks describing patient-staff interactions in a real LTCF setting. We simulated distribution of nasopharyngeal swabs and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests using clinical and demographic indications and evaluated the efficacy and resource-efficiency of a range of surveillance strategies, including group testing (sample pooling) and testing cascades, which couple (i) testing for multiple indications (symptoms, admission) with (ii) random daily testing.Results: In the baseline scenario, randomly introducing a silent SARS-CoV-2 infection into a 170-bed LTCF led to large outbreaks, with a cumulative 86 (95% uncertainty interval 6-224) infections after 3 weeks of unmitigated transmission. Efficacy of symptom-based screening was limited by lags to symptom onset and silent asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission. Across scenarios, testing upon admission detected just 34-66% of patients infected upon LTCF entry, and also missed potential introductions from staff. Random daily testing was more effective when targeting patients than staff, but was overall an inefficient use of limited resources. At high testing capacity (> 10 tests/100 beds/day), cascades were most effective, with a 19-36% probability of detecting outbreaks prior to any nosocomial transmission, and 26-46% prior to first onset of COVID-19 symptoms. Conversely, at low capacity (< 2 tests/100 beds/day), group testing strategies detected outbreaks earliest. Pooling randomly selected patients in a daily group test was most likely to detect outbreaks prior to first symptom onset (16-27%), while pooling patients and staff expressing any COVID-like symptoms was the most efficient means to improve surveillance given resource limitations, compared to the reference requiring only 6-9 additional tests and 11-28 additional swabs to detect outbreaks 1-6 days earlier, prior to an additional 11-22 infections.Conclusions: COVID-19 surveillance is challenged by delayed or absent clinical symptoms and imperfect diagnostic sensitivity of standard RT-PCR tests. In our analysis, group testing was the most effective and efficient COVID-19 surveillance strategy for resource-limited LTCFs. Testing cascades were even more effective given ample testing resources. Increasing testing capacity and updating surveillance protocols accordingly could facilitate earlier detection of emerging outbreaks, informing a need for urgent intervention in settings with ongoing nosocomial transmission

Pacientes portadores da doença de Parkinson: significado de suas vivências Pacientes portadores de la enfermedad del Parkinson: el significado de sus vivencias Patients' experience with Parkinson's disease

OBJETIVO: Conhecer o significado do impacto que a doença de Parkinson (DP) exerce na vida de seu portador e da vivência como história de enfrentamentos em condição de cronicidade. MÉTODOS: A coleta de dados mediante história oral temática de Meihy, foi guiada por questões norteadoras abertas. Oito idosos integrantes do Grupo de Ajuda Mútua da Extensão da UFSC se dispuseram a participar do estudo no primeiro semestre de 2005. O projeto foi aprovado pelo Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa com seres humanos, segundo Resolução n.º196/96 do Ministério da Saúde. RESULTADOS: Das histórias, emergiram quatro grandes temas significativos: "Ouvir o diagnóstico de Parkinson é sempre um impacto." "Conviver com Parkinson?... tem que se esforçar!" "A doença deve ser assumida em família." "Conviver em grupo de pares ajuda, anima, socializa." CONCLUSÃO: O significado de ter e de viver com a DP revelado pelos portadores forneceram pistas relevantes para rever e expandir programas de saúde consentâneos com as reais necessidades de atenção do binômio portador de DP e família cuidadora.<br>OBJETIVO: Conocer el significado del impacto que el Mal de Parkinson produce en el portador del mismo y la vivencia como historia de enfrentamientos en condiciones crónicas. MÉTODOS: La recolección de datos mediante la Historia Oral Temática de Meihy, fue guiada por medio de preguntas abiertas. Ocho ancianos integrantes del Grupo de Ayuda Mutua de Extensión de UFSC, se ofrecieron para participar del estudio en el primer semestre del año 2005. El proyecto fue aprobado por el Comité de Ética en Investigación con Seres Humanos: CONEP/MS-UFSC. RESULTADOS: De la narración de historias emergieron grandes temas significativos: "Escuchar el diagnóstico del Mal de Parkinson siempre es un impacto"; "Convivir con Parkinson? ... tiene que esforzarse!"; "La enfermedad tiene que ser asumida en familia"; "Convivir en grupos de compañeros ayuda, anima y socializa". CONCLUSIÓN: El significado de tener y vivir con el Mal de Parkinson manifestados por sus portadores han proporcionado apreciaciones relevantes para la revisión y expansión de los Programas de Salud coherentes con las necesidades reales para la atención del binomio: portador de Parkinson y familia cuidadora.<br>OBJECTIVES: To understand the impact of Parkinson's disease (PD) on Patients' life and the approaches available and used to cope with this chronic condition. METHODS: Data were collected with unstructured interviews using Meihy's oral history methodology. The sample consisted of eight elders from the UFSC Extension Mutual Help Group. Data were collected in the first academic semester of 2005. The project has been approved by the Ethics Committee on human subjects, Resolution n.º196/96 of the Ministry of Health. RESULTS: Four important topics have emerged: "Learn about the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease always cause a great impact". "Living with Parkinson's Disease? ...you have to do your utmost!" "The diagnosis must be shared with the family". "Living with patients with Parkinson's disease may be beneficial for them; it may encourage and socialize them". CONCLUSIONS: The meaning of having or living with patients with Parkinson's disease may suggest new strategies regarding the revision and expansion of health programs to attend the needs of patients with Parkinson's disease and their family members